Publications

Ruru Hoong is a PhD candidate in Economics at Harvard & HBS. Her research interests currently span behavioural, labour, and public economics, focusing particularly on the impact of new digital technologies and associated regulatory policies. She graduated with a... View Details

10 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Going Digital: Implications for Firm Value and Performance

Keywords: by Wilbur Chen and Suraj Srinivasan

July 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Mary Kay Inc.: Enriching Women's Lives while Embracing Change

By: Elie Ofek, K. Shelette Stewart and Julia Kelley

In December 2020, Mary Kay Inc. Chief Marketing Officer Sheryl Adkins-Green considered several strategic dilemmas. Founded in 1963 by Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay was a direct sales company whose Independent Beauty Consultants purchased its beauty and cosmetics products at... View Details

Jun 13 2017
Testimonial

Understanding Today's Marketing Challenges

November 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

KhataBook

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Allison H. Mnookin and James Barnett

In January 2020, India-based KhataBook, a digital ledger app for small businesses, is led by CEO Ravish Naresh, as his team faces a series of dilemmas regarding where to focus next. View Details

Keywords: Monetization; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Marketing; Measurement and Metrics; Technology Industry; India; Bangalore; Mumbai; Southeast Asia

May 2022
Case

Rawbank's Illico Cash: Can 'Fast Money' Overcome Cash Dependency in the DRC?

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Thomas de Dreux-Brézé, the Head of Strategy and Project Management at Rawbank Congo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was perplexed as he reviewed annual adoption rates for the bank’s launch of Illico Cash 2.0. As the bank’s mobile money app, Illico Cash... View Details

Raffaella Sadun is Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and is a Co-Chair of Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work and co-PI of the Digital Reskilling Lab. Sadun received her PhD in Economics... View Details

Chiara Farronato

Chiara Farronato is Glenn and Mary Jane Creamer Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School, and co-Principal Investigator of the Platform Lab at the Digital... View Details

Jan 01 2020
Article

AI, Transformation, and the Management Challenge

2019
Book

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

By: Shoshana Zuboff

In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Profiling; Consumer Behavior; Forecasting and Prediction; Information Technology; Power and Influence; Ethics; Society; Transformation

Find at Harvard

21 May 2020
News

Is Stablecoin the Next Big Thing in E-Commerce?

2023
Chapter

The Platform Organization

By: Annabelle Gawer, Michael A. Cusumano and David B. Yoffie

The industry platform is a distinct organizational form that has grown into importance over the past 20 years. We focus on the digital platform, which, along with its associated ecosystem, is uniquely positioned to create and capture value in the digital economy. View Details

Keywords: Platform; Organization; Organizations; Internet and the Web; Value Creation; Digital Platforms

Jul 08 2021
Interview

As Customers Change, Marketing Must Change, Too

January 2015 (Revised November 2016)
Case

La Martina: Leveraging Polo's Luxury Lifestyle

By: Anat Keinan, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Sandrine Crener

Founded in 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, La Martina has grown from a high-end polo equipment company into a global fashion brand with operations in 56 countries. Polo, which is not only a sport but also a way of life, is at the core of the brand DNA. Polo is a... View Details

Zoe Cullen graduated with a PhD from Stanford in Economics in 2016. She worked from 2016-2018 as the Chief Economist for an Asian bank on the roll out of a digital transaction platform. In 2018 she joined HBS as an Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurial... View Details

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge

By: Elie Ofek and Nakisha Williams

This case focuses on Purple Innovation Inc. (Purple), a company that started out in the Direct to Consumer (DTC) mattress space. In late 2018, after a successful launch and IPO with sales predominantly originating from its website, Purple was looking to sustain its... View Details

Keywords: Offline Sales; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry

September–October 2023
Article

Reskilling in the Age of AI

By: Jorge Tamayo, Leila Doumi, Sagar Goel, Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic and Raffaella Sadun

In the coming decades, as the pace of technological change continues to increase, millions of workers may need to be not just upskilled but reskilled—a profoundly complex societal challenge that will sometimes require workers to both acquire new skills and... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; AI and Machine Learning; Training; Adaptation; Employees; Digital Transformation